Detroit Tigers Knock Out Cleveland Guardians on Away Turf, Advance to ALDS Versus Mariners

Dillon Dingler sent one over the fence in the sixth frame, Wenceel Pérez drove in a pair of runs during a four-run seventh, and the Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians by a score of 6-3 on Thursday to progress to the ALDS.

It is the second straight season, the Tigers have claimed a Wild Card Series victory away from home. The Tigers travel to the Mariners' home for the AL Division Series with Game 1 on Saturday.

The Mariners, AL West winners, the No. 2 seed, won four out of six regular-season meetings from the Detroit, who were the third wild-card entry.

Ramírez scored Cleveland’s first run. The AL Central champion Guardians were trailing by 15.5 games in early July before pulling off the biggest comeback in division or league history in baseball history.

Yet, they ran out of steam in the three-game series as the Tigers turned the page after recording the second-worst record in the majors in last month (seven wins and seventeen losses).

The game was knotted at 1-1 with two outs in the sixth when Dingler connected on a high changeup from Joey Cantillo on a 1-1 count and drove it over 400 feet into the bleachers in left-center field to give Detroit the lead.

It was also the initial playoff hit and RBI for the Tigers catcher.

The Tigers then pulled away in the seventh by sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring four times.

With an out and the bases full, Wenceel Pérez lined a base hit to right field off Sabrowski to drive in Javier Báez and Parker Meadows. Hunter Gaddis came in and allowed RBI base hits to Spencer Torkelson and Greene, which brought in Kerry Carpenter and Pérez.

Finnegan got the win, setting down all four hitters he confronted. Cantillo was charged with the loss.

The Tigers got on the board first in the third inning. With an out and runners at first and third, Kerry Carpenter grounded a ball down the first-base side that ricocheted off CJ Kayfus’ glove when he tried to back hand it. The baseball rolled into foul territory near the stands as Meadows scored, Carpenter went to second and Gleyber Torres moved to third on what the official scorer called a two-base hit.

The Cleveland squad tied it in the fourth inning. Valera started the inning with a double to the right-field alley and came home on Ramírez’s base hit to right-center on a knuckle curve by the pitcher on a full count.

The base hit was the fortieth knock of Ramírez’s playoff career, making him the fifth player in franchise history to reach that milestone.

In the eighth frame, José Ramírez got on base on a missed catch error by Vest to bring in Rocchio and Kwan. But he was cut down at second.